India’s Buoyant Book Market Attracts More Foreign Deals

Historically, Indian writers have tended to go to the West to get their books published but with e-books posing an ever-increasing challenge to publications there, industry experts indicate a reverse flow may have just begun.

Indeed, there are murmurs that the big and burgeoning Indian book publishing market and the country’s effervescent literary culture have begun to attract both established and new writers from the either side of the Atlantic seeking a bigger audience and accolade.

India remains one of the few major markets said to be still experiencing growth in both print and digital publishing and home to over 19,000 publishers with around 90,000 titles published annually. It is also said to be the third largest market for English books consumption after the US and UK markets, with the children’s book sector alone reported to represent a 25% share of its licensing trade. And the space for Indian writing has also been growing rapidly with more bookstores opening up in the smaller towns and cities.

Despite threats from other forms of digital media the Indian publishing arena appears to be coping pretty well with event-based promotion of the reading culture and a sudden spurt in the national and regional literary festivals said to have bolstered the growth of the industry.

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